Stretched Out Game Endings - Busted Buttons Ep. 20

We start with Hick giving his final thoughts (spoiler free)  on The Last of Us Part 2. What are his overall opinions on the story and did he like the ending?

Speaking of endings, it seems like video game endings are really getting stretched out lately. Is it something that we enjoy or hate?

We then address subtitles in video games. Are they something we use or not? How are we going to use them in the future?

Afterwards, we get back to a topic we missed in the prior episode, the live action Halo TV show. Is it something we plan to watch?

Then we talk about Sony's $250 million investment into Epic Games. Is it something that we like to see? What do we think will come out of it?

We end with a discussion on loot boxes in FIFA as this one individual spent his entire university savings on loot boxes. You all know we don't care for them, but how much do we actually hate them?

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Transcript

Red: 0:17

What's up gamers Welcome to Episode 20 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast where I didn't think we'd make it too, too much less 20. So I'm pretty excited,

Hick: 0:27

Tom is that we make it to two but

Red: 0:31

but so today we're gonna spend some time Hick recently finished up the last of his part two, we're still staying away from spoilers for people who haven't finished it, but he's gonna spend a little bit of time talking about things he liked things he didn't like, you know, the stuff that goes along with the ending, we're gonna talk about how the endings of some video games are just way too damn long. Then we're, then we're also going to talk about kind of an interesting mechanic in games. That's like subtitles in cutscenes. How do you feel about them? Do you like them? Do you dislike them? Do you use them, we'll spend some time talking about that. And we're also going to bring up a topic that we meant to talk about last week we ran out of time for and that's the live action Halo TV show. We're both huge Halo fans. And we'll we'll spend a few minutes talking about the upcoming live action TV show. And we'll talk a little bit about Sony's recent investment of $250 million in epic, which is an interesting partnership. They've worked together for a long time, and now it's a new investment. So we'll talk about where we think that might take us. We're gonna we're gonna spend a little time talking about someone who spent their entire university savings on loot boxes for FIFA. And you know, we ripped on loot boxes a few times in this podcast. And this was, this was an interesting story.

Hick: 1:44

This guy's a straight up idiot if he asked me, but we'll go into a little bit but not too hard. Yeah. And

Red: 1:50

then we'll actually if we have time, we're going to spend some time talking about one another one of the more ugly sides of gaming. And that's been fans kind of just take things a little too far a little too personally and start attacking whether it's verbally or online creators. Specifically, we've spent some time talking about one of the voice actors on the last was part two who's been the target of a bit of a harassment campaign since that game came out so but before we get into those topics, I do have to give us a pat on the back because like we recorded our last episode, before the news came out about Ubisoft NBA touquet was going to cost $70 on the next gen consoles, and that is led to rampant speculation that all games on next gen aren't or most at least are going to be$70. I got to give us a big over the internet High Five here because we recorded that before that news broke. We were both on board with a little bit of a price hike to kind of keep up with the ever increasing development prices so Hick Good job for

Hick: 2:49

we nailed that one. I don't know. I definitely didn't say 70. I said 80. Which going back that was probably a little bit too high. But it'd be a little I don't think five What difference does five make five just really not that much more money. So yeah, no good for them. I agree with it. I think it should happen video games need to go up in price because the costs are going up. If we want to keep on getting these great games, the companies need more money. So I'm fine with this go up to $70 you know, now I still have my games on sale. But you know, the ones that I really want, I have no problem whatsoever. Spending 50 bucks on but let's just go ahead. Let's get right into the last of us part two. I recently finished that bleep yet. It was yesterday that finished it man like Okay, first of all, this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. Like, just now I have a 4k with HDR. So like, you know, that does help some of the graphics, but just the details and like the weight like how they were sharp and crisp. Like the game just looked fantastic. Now, here's the thing. I did have an issue with some of like, like all the darkness in the game in the rain, but it does make sense that it was in the game because I still won't say what city it's in. But the city it has a lot of rain. So there was a lot of rain in the game and you know, the darkness kind of like you know, based on the genre it is the darkness also made sense. But um, to me Yeah, this like you see, you know, the darkness made sense in the game, like I just still found like, I was going through too many dark areas. Yeah, that's something like I just, I wish they could have proved it in a game a little bit more so far in your playthrough like it means that's something that you're kind of struggling with.

Red: 4:27

It really is and for one thing the room that I normally play video games in my living room, it gets a lot of natural light. And that's not bragging or anything it's just I got huge windows so anytime there's darker areas in video games, if I'm playing during the day, I'm gonna get a glare and it's not even about you know, see it just makes it really tough to see and I know like you can increase the brightness Yeah, I will say this game as some of the best settings of any non computer game I've ever seen in terms of accessibility difficulty grant, you know, settings all that so adjusting the darkness is a that hard, but then it almost makes everything look a little washed out, you lose that shadows, you lose the depth. Yeah, but I agree that I'm using the flashlight more than I ever thought I would I pretty much leave it on most of the time, but then you get that kind of annoying mechanic where you have to bang on the side of your controller, or shake your controller to get the flashlight to come back on. So it's I agree and a lot of it was or not a lot of a part of it does have to with my own personal gaming setup, I get that I play in a very brightly lit room during the day. So the darkness, I'm going to present with you It bothers me a little bit too, not just in this game, but just just in games in general. But I'll go and tag you back in there.

Hick: 5:35

Yeah, like I said, Just when I see a game that beautiful, like I want to see a lot of it. And all these dark areas, like I said, even though it makes a lot of sense with the whole, like post apocalyptic zombies, you know, affected whatever, yes, it makes sense. But I just still like I like to see the game. And when you go through all these dark areas, like you don't see very much even though you have a flashlight, so just me I just thought was a little bit too much in the game. But you know, overall, I'm not going to use, they'll drop it down a couple points, I guess, but not a lot. And now here's the thing, man, this the story of this game, I don't know how to go into this. Um, I had, hopefully, like, I highlight issues with the story. But like, it wasn't so much how it came together, like it did come together. Pretty good at the end. But just think throughout the game, there was too many hid scratchy moments for me, like, why did you do that? Like not that I'm a writer or that know exactly how to write a game or anything like that. But there's just those moments where I was like, I don't understand exactly why they're going this direction, or that direction or why this didn't happen. And I understand that each game I play there's going to be a couple of those. So I'm okay with it. Yeah, but in the last of us, it just seemed like there was too many in the story. Like, here's the fucking crazy thing, man. I have so many issues with the story. But at the end of the day, I was like that's one of the best stories in video games I've ever seen. It just it's a sentiment to like you know, Naughty Dog like they are that great like they create like you know The Last of Us and Uncharted they create great stories in their game so I can say here I can bitch about all the issues I had with the story. But at the end of the day, it's still a fantastic story in the way that they kind of close out this chapter. Like it was beautiful like I don't think they could have done like a more beautiful job so just overall had some issues. Oh the mechanics the change in your guns that wasn't a big fan of that like I know I know if you're far enough and right now to where you have a lot of guns but you wanna kind of talk about that

Red: 7:33

not I've got several and several guns sorry not so much several issues but I kind of like how you can use the D pad to so quickly switch between like your long gun your gun, your health kit your your Molotov cocktails, your flashbangs all that stuff, but having to like there's so limited ammo at least so far in the game for where I'm at and if the first Last of Us is any indication it's going to stay this way. You have to switch guns quite a bit just because you run out of ammo for your guns so for me like I don't like having to like Okay, you go over to your your pistol and then you hold square to dig into your backpack and pull out a different gun like when you can't do that in the middle of a fight and I get that that's kind of the point it's a survival game. It's not a straight up Nathan Drake Uncharted action game I get that but it just makes some of the fights not impossible obviously cuz you can beat the game but just frustrating where you go in you've only got a few rounds for each of your guns and you're constantly having to switch through so like switching from let's say your pistol to your shotgun is easy enough to express Yeah, right or left you know, that's easy enough. But then if you're one pistol runs out of ammo and you switch to another one. You got to do the whole backpack thing and I get that that adds some realism to the game like it's yes you it's not like Doom where you can just carry 13 guns on your back but that's what

Hick: 8:55

I want. That's what that's the realism that I can get rid of. Okay, first of all you can't push r1 also switch between guns but yes that's something that used that much but you're right like I don't need that realistic aspect in a game like just let me be able to switch between my weapons like a lot easier in like exactly like you said the whole crafting items and stuff like I want the damn game to stop it might not make sense it might not be realistic but yeah, there's a monster coming after me. And I gotta make some ammo dammit stop the game. craft something let me make my ammo and while I'm at it let me also get a health kit and so I can heal myself you quit I don't want to take that long to like you know regenerate my health I want to be faster now. Not go throw that against the game because that's a mechanic that law games had nowadays, but damn, I want things to slow down sometimes and make it a little bit easier on me but the whole switching gun the guns thing did kind of bother me But yeah, right now kind of ending on the whole you know the game. Right now I've set at about 8.54 which I think is pretty good. Like there's definitely some things that drop it down the story in Some parts, the mechanics will kind of get to the next point where he's gonna say something we're going to talk about next. But overall, like 8.5 still a fantastic game still one of the greatest games, I think in a long time. And like said, that's, I mean, that's still you get I got choked up towards the end of the game, and like, get choked up when it comes to games. So yeah, this year, he was head scratching some parts. But when it all comes together, like in at the end, like the end, he was beautiful, like I said, makes you choke up a little bit. So overall, is a great game. Highly recommend it? Yes, it does have an issue its issues. But let's go back to the fucking ending and talk about something else. That not only happened in the last of us part two, but I've also been experiencing an ally games in red. I want to throw this to you first. Yes, this whole concept of games, just not ending. Like I think you get to a point where you're like, Okay, the game is going to end soon. Now, it might not end right then and there. But you kind of have a feeling that it's going to end soon into this, like, five, six hours after that. It just drives me nuts. Because I'm like, okay, I want to get through this. I want this game to and so is that kind of something you've been struggling with, with any games?

Red: 11:14

It really is in recent, I just experienced it within the last few months with Assassin's Creed origins. Great game, I loved it. But the ending of it. It's one of those like, you think you'd beat the last guy and the game's over, but then there's something else, then there's something else. Oh, now you're playing as a whole different character and going after someone else. Now you're trying to tie it into the rest of the franchise. Because origins it's how the whole Assassin's Templars thing started. It's like, just recently with that one, like I'm part of it. Okay, it was getting kind of late. I was a little drunk and just ready to be done with the game. And it just kept going and going and going. And at some point, you're like, I don't know, I don't care. I quit. Yeah, herring at that point. And like, that's supposed to be like, the climax of your whole story or of the game, where you really get the emotional payoff of the characters in the story is in that is in that ending, but man, if you keep dragging it on so long, and just keep tacking it on and tacking it on. Eventually, I'm just like, just ended just like I don't care anymore. Let me see the credits. So I can say a beat this game. And it kind of cracks me up because it I know, people when this happens, what they always go back to is the movie return to the king, one of the Lord of the Rings movies, because that was one of those that had like five false endings and like, they would have a senior like, okay, that's got to be the end the credits roll, and then they'd show another little scene and another little scene and I know when you're talking about, you know, a saga that's, you know, hours upon hours upon hours long, you know, you're nitpicking at that point. But like, that's what I feel like the analogy is you keep thinking, oh, here's where the credits are gonna roll. Nope, here's where the credits are gonna roll. And honestly, this has been an issue I think for for a really long time since games kind of got out of that. You can only play him in a single setting. Yeah, and I'm gonna bash on and I hate to do it, it actually breaks my heart to do it. One of my all time all time favorite video games actually my favorite video game ever Super Mario RPG. And in that one, like, if you fight your way to the top of yowzers Castle, you fight the being that invaded the Mushroom Kingdom and not spoiling anything. This game came back out in like 1995. So

Hick: 13:14

spoilers, but yeah, we're not worried about spoilers on a freakin Super Nintendo game.

Red: 13:18

Exactly. But yeah, so you fight the sword that like invaded Mushroom Kingdom to set up the entire game, you beat it, and you're like, Okay, great, but then it sucks you into a whole nother level that you have to go through and you know, it ends up having a really great ending and everything the final final boss fight is amazing. But it's kind of one of those like, you think you're done with it? And then Nope, nope, you got to go through a whole nother level of fight one you know a few more bosses and then one more big bad final boss and it's just it tacks on another you know hour two or longer Yeah, onto the game so I'm It is something I've dealt with not just recently, but I mean, even as soon as games started going to where you could save and have more than just a single sitting, you know, I think people just have a hard time wrapping them up. Now. I know it sounds like you've experienced this a little bit. Yeah, hearing some more recent games. So take us through that.

Hick: 14:10

I mean, that's the whole thing is you're sitting there and you're expecting the game to answer you're like okay, I'm gonna settle up and I'm gonna finish this off. You might be like, you know, depending on what your concept of late at night is, like, you know for me like 11 o'clock is getting late at night I got kids and so this didn't happen with the last of us because I have learned but like you know, I'm here like with this training like I was like okay, Sunday morning I'm going I knew I was getting close. So I was like Sunday morning I'm going to sit down I'm going to beat this game and it just industry is the fucking worse at this this training goes off like 10 fucking hours as you think. Oh my gosh, so that's like the best the worst though the worst of this situation but I'll send there on a Sunday is like Okay, I'm gonna knock out this game blah, blah, blah like in an hour. So, and man this game just kept on going and kept on going. It's like poker. I was political pot committed. I was committed to that. whites getting pissed off at me, it makes sense. Because I'm sitting there, I'm not helping out the kids. I'm not doing anything. I gotta beat this game today, because I've already invested. Like, you know, my mind says there I want to do today is stretch and just stretch. So there are situations in life like that or when you're playing late night work, it just keeps on going and going and going and you don't want so we got to go ahead and you don't finish it. So you're either mad or you stay up too late playing it. And then you got work the next day. And so they're just to me, okay, understand, like, you know, like in a Mario game or something like there's an IT you think it's the end? And then they have like, one or two more levels. Okay. Yeah, that takes like, you know, 1520 minutes. But when you're stretching out, like dis training, like, I don't know how long it actually was. Yeah, but it felt like, it was close to 10 hours, man, she was the last of us. Part Two. I thought was gonna end. Like, you know, I was playing I don't remember Ross playing, but I thought was gonna end and then there was like, maybe three hours after that, which for linear game. that's a that's a lot. Yeah. I think my gameplay ended up being like 28 hours. So when you're talking about you think of games going into this three more hours of only a 28 hour game? Yeah, that's a lot of like, you know, it's a lot of time. And by that point, like, I just wanted the game to be over and just kept on going and kept on going. And like I said, at the end, it did come together beautifully. But it just, it took too long to get there. Like there's just too much to get there. And like you know, at the end I'm just flying through I'm not even worried about killing people. Like I was doing a lot of stealth. Yeah, not this game because like, you know, I learned in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, how valuable it is and then play through this game. I learned how important it was is at the end of the game, and I'm just going like full on like, guns up in the air trying to shoot everybody like you know, dying. Because back to old,

Red: 16:49

old hick mode there. Yeah.

Hick: 16:52

I'm just at that point where I just don't care anymore. I just want the game to be over in. I don't know what the developers problems are. I don't know why they got keep on. Okay, if you don't want to end it, like you know exactly where people think you might end it. That's okay, but you don't have a lot after that. No, it does drop a game down. And for the last of us part two, it did drop it down a couple points in my book because the indie was just stretched out too long. I was tired of it. I wanted the game to be over I want to get to the ending which you know, I can't really say much about the ending. I thought that was gonna end like not in but there's like a climactic point I'm trying not to you know, give too much away. Of course. Of course there's like a climactic point where you don't think the game is going to end but you want to see like the resolution of that climactic point and then you don't get it for like 10 more hours. Oh, it's just like that ending and then that part like this, those are the issues that I have with the last of us But anyways, what kind of you know kind of get away with that developers in your games fucking sooner? Okay, we do. I got my mind the games going in around this point game if I'm staying up late at night. Let me finish the game before I go to fucking bed. Don't maybe stay up late at night or go to bed pissed because I didn't finish it. Damn it. Yeah, in your games in a reasonable amount of time when the players think that the game is supposed to be over. It's not that hard. And that's before you called this week you know I'm just I'm upset man. I'm upset

Red: 18:13

drink some more drink some more beer man you know what happens it's like

Hick: 18:17

to talk with you about there was more mechanic like you know that he can't did did that did do differently in The Last of Us part two. That done from past games in that was I did I did not use subtitles, which is something that dealt for every single game in the past. First, I can't just I've been talking for a while. So I want to let you have subtitles. Like do you use them? Do not use them? Have you ever not go ahead? Just go ahead.

Red: 18:43

Well, before before we move on, I will say I know you we've praised the Witcher 310 million times in this podcast. We're gonna praise the 10 million more before it's all said and done. Not just this episode. I mean, all in all, it knew how to wrap up a damn game. You beat the final boss and you got an epilogue where you're well, depending on how depends on how the game ended. You got your epic log epilogue where you kind of run around and it just shows kind of the resolution of some of your decisions. You know, it was short, like that's that's all we need. Like we don't need more more. So Witcher three continues to be the perfect but

Hick: 19:11

let me ask you this question. What did the Witcher three do wrong? Not much. Exactly. Exactly. So it's the greatness of The Witcher three but kind of go ahead and Yep.

Red: 19:20

Anyway, so titles getting getting on to the subtitles. I always spend a lot of time there but I'm I'm very, very, very hit or miss on subtitles. I usually like having them on. Because in some games, either you have people either with like thick accents, or the the speaking volume is quieter than like the action volume. That's a bad thing in movies for one thing, but that's a whole different story. Or just there's a lot of background noise going on while you're trying to have a conversation and you miss some of the spoken dialogue. So I usually play with subtitles on but one thing that I've really kind of picked up on this generation is during cutscenes You can take such better screenshots to share with the subtitles off, because during cutscenes is some of the most beautiful, like, that's when they you know, that's where you've got really good moments usually to take a good screenshot of. And if you had the subtitles on, I feel like it kind of detracts from your screenshot, or it could spoil something if you're not trying to spoil whatever. Yeah. So for me, this generation, I've really tried to get away from using the subtitles, because I really like I feel like I take more screenshots during cinematics during cutscenes, than I do just in regular gameplay. And part of that depends on the game. There's some open world games where all stop and take a lot of pictures of beautiful, like sunrise, sunsets, ocean, you know, all that stuff. But the cutscenes have some of the most beautiful cinematic moments in these games. So for me, I've recently tried to start playing more and more without the cutscenes because I know or I'm sorry, without the subtitles, rather, I don't want to skip the cutscenes. But that way, like if I want to take pictures, I don't have to worry about going in later trying to crop out or Photoshop out the the subtitles, and I can just share them. So it's weird that something like that drives my behavior on the whole subtitles thing. But it really has this generation being able to hit that share button and immediately tweet out or put on our you know, put on our, you know, Playstation or Xbox timeline. a screenshot has made me really try to stay away from subtitles. So again, it is kind of game specific. Just because sometimes you are playing a game where people have thick accents or people you know, the the volume of their voices aren't as high as the background noise. So it's hard to hear what's going on. So it really is hit or miss. But these days, I really am trying to stay away from using the subtitles. So how

Hick: 21:44

about you? Okay, The Last of Us Part two is the first game I don't know if I said this or not already. But like when my code this week, you all like it, my throat was kind of going so I got to read it. I wouldn't normally throw it to read so I'm not always able to explain stuff the way I want to. But if I didn't say I'm saying it, you know, now if I did say I'm always I'm saying it fucking again. The Last of Us Part Two was the first game where I did not use subtitles. And oh man, it was a game changer. Because it immerse me so much in the cutscenes like I have forgotten that chose not to have subtitles in the very beginning, which Why did that? I don't really know why I did that. Because I do like to have subtitles because I do like to see what they're actually saying in a game like Assassin's Creed Odyssey, like you know, it's kind of like, you know, a Greek accent, I guess you could say kinda like you're talking about you can always understand what they're saying with their accent. So, like, you know, games like that. Do you like to have the subtitles on I always like to have subtitles on just to know, kind of what's going on. It also helps me like, you know, if I'm reading it, it kind of helps me understand better what's going on the game. Yeah, but I don't know going for me because like I said, had no subtitles off. In the last of us. Like I got so immersed in those cutscenes. And like so drawn into them. Because I wasn't sitting there reading text the entire time. I was sitting there I was watching the video game characters faces, which say a shit ton during cutscenes. Like you see all those facial expressions, which The Last of Us to good job Naughty Dog, those facial expressions, you fucking nailed those facial expressions in the game. So like I said, going forward, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. cuz I've always been a subtitle guy. But man, The Last of Us two, it did make the experience, like really just a lot better, so much more immersive. I felt like I was part of the cutscenes like, you know, that wasn't sitting there rain. I feel like I was actually in them, like, you know, in the best way. Yeah, yeah, that you can be in them. But um, kind of like, you know, switching topics like, you know, that's not what you're supposed to do when you have a transition. But like, hey, let's just switch up topics. No, we're talking about subtitles. And we don't know, or I don't know if I go back to subtitles or not. But one thing that we do want to go back to is a topic that we missed last week. And there's a live action Halo TV show in red. We're both Halo fans, I want those to you first, because I've been talking for a while. And then also, I would say you are a bigger Halo fan than me even though we're both huge fans. So I kind of want to get your reaction on this whole announcement of a live action Halo TV show,

Red: 24:18

before jumping too much into this particular iteration of live action Halo. It I feel like they've been producing some form of live action Halo for about 20 years now it legitimately feels like there was gonna be a full motion movie than a cartoon series or something and then a TV show. And out of all that all we've gotten so far is the like the Forward Unto Dawn web series, which it was live action. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. I think it was on Netflix for a little while is where I finally watched it. This has been years ago. But even that was only like maybe an hour hour and 10 minutes long, something like that. So I feel like they've been producing a live action Halo for as long as the whole series is Yeah. You know,

Hick: 25:00

that sounds like it sounds like Zelda right? Exactly.

Red: 25:04

Hey, we need another cartoon Zelda speaking of such things. Excuse me, Princess. No,

Hick: 25:10

that was not that was not the cartoons that was the CDI games, I believe, oh, god, I'm not 100% correct. I believe that was actually now I'm questioning myself, man, you know, I don't know, move on.

Red: 25:21

Anyway, so I am like, like you mentioned, we are both huge Halo fans, I've loved that word that universe like the whole Halo universe, I've read some of the novels that have come out of it. We've played every game at will, except for the Halo Wars. I don't know if you've played either the Halo games. But other than that, we played all the first person shooter. So I am excited. It seems like that the universe lends itself well, to a live action series. I mean, it can be like, you can play it as a pretty straight military, you know, style. Humans vs. Aliens, whatever you want to do. And there's a lot of a whole universe, it's just like Star Wars, you have a universe worth of stories that you could potentially explore. And obviously, they're going to focus on masterchief as they should I mean, he's he is the star of Halo him and Cortana. So from everything I've been hearing, and they recently had an interview with a girl from 343 Studios named Kiki wolf kill, I think she's maybe their head of multimedia or something like that. Somebody pretty high up the chain. And she gave some additional details. It sounds like you know, they're wanting to tell a different masterchief story than anything we've seen in the games and in the novel. So that opens up a whole realm of possibilities for them to approach and so I'm very excited. I will check it out. Whenever it does come out. I think it's supposed to be on shoe or Showtime or stars. I I totally lost those ones. I think it's showtime, but I'm not 100% on that, but I'm excited for it. Will you be checking it out when it comes out?

Hick: 26:49

If it's on stars or Showtime? Might not be checking it out. But um, you know, I will sit here and I want to say yeah, but I still need to watch the Witcher. Like I started I got like three or four episodes in. It's probably been too long. So now I want to go back and watch the first three or four episodes again. You should probably won't you know, I probably do that. So I'll knock out the Witcher at some point. Um, we'll watch it you know, it falls into that hole. There's so much going on in life man, like I said, watch the Witcher yet and so while watch it Yeah, probably my radar. I'm like if it's on Showtime or stars I don't know. Like it depends on how much tougher cuz you know, we've taught we've not talked about it on this podcast. Probably. Maybe we have I don't know. But there's so many game subscriptions that you have. Now. There are it's Yeah, you got this one. You got that one. So another one? Yeah, well, I might only be like, you know, 10 bucks 10 to 15 bucks. It's still a no subscription that I really don't need. So um, you know, I am excited about this. It probably won't be stuff that chick at the beginning, I'll probably see maybe what the reviews are for it. You know, of course, they become like, you know, Netflix or Hulu or Microsoft or pi sec their own video streaming because that's we're about to do NBC, ABC, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, they all have their own damn service now. So you know, if I don't seal Showtime or stars, I'll just wait for Microsoft to drop their new one. And then I have to pay for that one because they're like, oh, we're gonna do a bunch of shows with some of our video game characters. Which isn't that much because you don't do enough exclusive Xbox. You send me like one or two game exclusive. I don't know how we got here.

Red: 28:19

You've gone off on a tangent man. Hey, we're supposed to get a look at some new exclusives July 23 is their show. Okay, okay, we'll

Hick: 28:29

see Fingers crossed. We'll see what happens as far as this will kind of get off of it. But um, yeah, no, I probably not check out the beginning I will keep an eye on it. And you know, I'll probably actually I'll probably talk to you about it, see what your opinions are. And then you know, I kind of check it out from there. But I'm kind of like you know, so Microsoft. They've been kind of investing in their video game market obviously with you know, Halo and master ci taking him to you know, live TV show, you know, kind of what's been so what's Sony been up to? Have they been doing thing red? Once you tell us what Sony's been up to lately?

Red: 28:59

Well, they recently did some investing nothing wrong with that I support that but they dumped 200 and $50 million into epic who if you listen to these podcasts you probably know a epic makes the Unreal Engine be epic runs fortnight so epic is basically printing money. So the 250,000,001st of all Okay, that sounds like a huge amount of money up front. I was reading article epics last valuation was over $17 billion. So I mean 250 million is don't get me wrong, a good chunk of money. But I think the number was it was like only 1.5% stake is what they bought. So when we talk about getting a minority stake, they got a minority he's actually brought up an interesting and injured in this I'm kind of going off on a bit of a tangent here, but it brought up an interesting point. We're getting to finances now. I guess the Chinese company Tencent. Yeah, invested something like 300 million in epic back but when it was only worth like, a billion dollars, yeah, that 300 million for them is now worth a shit ton.

Hick: 30:00

Yeah, I read it. I didn't read into the job. I did see that name and knew that they were like, you know, somehow,

Red: 30:04

yeah, they got in early. And that's a good lesson for you guys get it on the ground floor. Oh, yeah. And you potentially believe in because hey, next thing you know, it might be worth $17 billion.

Hick: 30:13

You gotta be smart if you do it.

Red: 30:15

But anyway, so I am kind of excited about this, obviously epic with the Unreal Engine, they have agreements with every video game company, I mean, because so many people license that engine to make their games. And that's why I mean, I don't think you'll ever see like Sony and epic, like in bed in terms of exclusives and things like that, even though I will say epic chose the PlayStation five to show up the newest version of the Unreal Engine not that long ago. So I think that may have been maybe part of the investment deal. I'm not 100% sure, because people were pretty impressed with it. It got people talking about the PS five, and its capabilities. But anyway, so I'm kind of excited to see where this goes. And I tweeted this out when I first read this news, I promise I'll eventually let you talk to, but, uh, like I had two reactions, because one of the statements they made is that they're trying to make this kind of convergence between video games, music, and, and TV and movies. And of course, you know, Sony's got a hand in all that stuff. Yeah. So there's also that saying,

Hick: 31:15

like, you know, stay in your lane, like, yeah, it works out sometimes. Yeah. And then you have like Google stadia, you know, stadia bash on Google stadia in a while, so I had to throw my shot in there, you

Red: 31:25

got to kick that dog every now but it seems like for fortnight has been used to like people have done these quote unquote live concerts on there. You've seen tie ins with movies and TV before whether it was skins trailers, announcements like fortnight does a great job of making events like even though you're supposed to be in there killing each other in a battle royale. Like they make events. And so I get Sony wanting to get in there and try to you know, drum up interest in their their TV properties, their music properties, their music, movie properties, using something like fortnight to get there. So from that same point, I get it when I hear this idea of convergence between video games, TV and music. I mean, you know, us, we are not fortnight people. I don't want a damn convergence of these things. I like my movies and TV over here. I like my music over here. And I like my video games over here like that, to me, that I don't want all this stuff commingled. But the one thing and I swear, I promise again, I will let you talk. I promise. One thing, I did play the game Quantum Break not that long ago. And it was an interesting experiment by the same people who made control and they made Alan Wake before that, but where they had actual TV episodes in between chapters of the game. So you play like a couple hours segment of the game. And there would be a 30 minute TV episode. And, and they filmed several different scenarios, depending on choices you made in the game, and the TV episodes you got or like little details. You know, the the big overarching stuff stayed the same, but little details change depending on what you did in the game itself. And I actually enjoyed that experience. I liked getting to the TV segments, the TV episodes segments and seeing Oh, and like trying to catch where things you did in the game had some kind of effect on the TV story. So my initial thought is yes, keep all this shit separate. I don't want fortnight being where music drops and TV trailers and movie trailers day be like keep that shit sever Brown, like, on the other hand, like Quantum Break was an interesting experiment. So anyway, I will finally shut up I need to drink my beer. What do you think of this investment from Sony?

Hick: 33:39

About me? I like it. But as you said, it's so low a minority stake in the code. So you know, epics not gonna be sitting there like, oh, Sony, we got to do something with them. Because the valuation like the percentages of how much of a stake they have is so low. So I think this is kind of just a, you know, hey, we got compete with Microsoft. That's what you know, there's probably more to it. I think a lot of it is like, you know, hey, we got compete with Microsoft, we don't want you to be with Microsoft. So hey, we're going to invest in like, you know, with you kind of set some things up between each other and, you know, I'm okay with it. I like it. Now, here's why I want to happen. I want to happen like Sony Nintendo happened, like, way back in the 90s. I want like, I want Epic Games. Like I want something to happen and Epic Games get really pissed off ago, you know, screw you Sony. We're gonna make our own console. And then with that console, they put Unreal engine in it, and they just had these spectacular games. So, you know, you know, I'm kind of hoping that hey, a new console, although we don't or haven't bought three consoles. Within Unreal Engine, like, you know what, man So, you know, that's not going to happen. That's just wishful thinking. But yeah, it would be awesome if it did happen, but overall, my opinions are, you know, it's an investment like, you know, it's investment. It's a way to compete with Microsoft, you know, obviously, Epic Games like you know, they're doing that they're doing spectacular with Unreal Engine fortnight. They also have War and they have that PC gaming store which is keeping up with steam which is also saying something right that game the game stores because it's just so simple like you know instead of having 25,000 free games like steam as they had like one or two so like

Red: 35:15

I mean games usually they're

Hick: 35:16

big games well there's some of those exclusive not exclusive but like I know control I believe outer worlds were two games that were on epic before they were on Steam so I mean, they're doing great things partnership you know hey, I honestly don't think a lot I think something's going to come out of it. I don't think a lot is gonna come out like they're not gonna like I said they're too low of a minority stake for epic to put like a huge priority on them. Yeah, so like you'll see some things some things here and there but for the most part, I don't think you're gonna see too much about it but um, you know, talking about investing a lot of money into something Oh, there's this damn shit out there now we're not gonna go too hard on because there was one reason that he's kind of touching for what he did it but we still go at him a little we'll go at him a little bit. But guys this dipshit that spit all his university savings on loot boxes for FIFA. And we've talked about this you know loot boxes a little bit. We're going to talk about it more now but um, we kind of gave you our opinions on loot boxes. You know? It might not be gambling by definition, but it's pretty much gambling. But Ravel Cocteau back to you on this one um kind of what's your hope? I don't know how much you ran into this guy but basically been told loot boxes spent all his university savings like I mean just what are your opinions on this story? Oh, well Oh, I oh

Red: 36:38

I mean I'm just I'm sitting here with my hand in my my head in my hand like yeah, oh my god, like don't get me wrong. I spend a lot of money on video games you know I spend money buying a fucking video game not gambling to get some kind of in game reward like Oh my I Oh, it blows my mind. It really does I'm anti loot box in general because not because it's gambling whatever I like going to casino you like oh yes you know whenever I'm pro gambling but at least on that one there's a chance you'll get a monetary reward on the other end Exactly. Looking loot boxes you're literally spending money to get some kind of in game item that has zero actual monetary value. Yeah, it's fucking stupid. And it's even worse when those loot boxes actually give you things that give you a benefit over other players because that is a game saying you have to spend money to get the best items you have to spend money to get better perks now if you want to do skins cosmetic stuff, different outfits, whatever go nuts, but that wasn't the way it was like fucking loot box and I think FIFA and I'm not 100% on this because I don't play a lot online or anything like that. Don't they have their like Ultimate Team or whatever they all were you were you're trying to basically get the best

Hick: 37:54

for FIFA. That's what these loot boxes are like, you know? Yeah, I don't know exactly what they are. But you know, you get players you might get more by No One of them is you get players and then you get them to this ultimate team and then you can compete with those players. I think what this guy is trying to do was build like the ultimate Ultimate Team like or no pay lay rod and Neato or whatever his name is like, you know, all the great messy, like all the great ones. I think he was trying to you know, get all those in, like the chances that probably get one of those players I would think is very, very small and just a ton of money on it. So, I mean, it's just like, hey, okay, if you want to spend money on loot boxes and get like, you know, it's basically what it's kind of like, I guess the way that I read it was it's kind of trading cards. Like I guess like there's loot boxes for EA FIFA. Like you know, you get these trading cards and then you can actually play with those players. Okay, so yeah, you buy a pack of cards. You see what you get? If you buy a pack of cards, you don't get shit usually. Yeah, it's so like, there's no value. I mean there's value you can get money from cards, but yeah, there's not any money for these loot boxes. I guess unless you're competing online and making money from gaming that's the only way there's a monetary value on the other end of this so if you okay here's here's why we're not gonna go too hard to God he did use this as a coping mechanism when his mother got cancer not think he had this problem beforehand and then it got a little bit worse was mother got cancer so we're not gonna go too hard. But this is still this is stupid. This is like yeah, okay, spin a little bit of money like you know, some loot boxes that try to get some things okay, but the spin your host save your university savings which I don't know how much but that was but I'm guessing if you're saving for university, it's in the thousands like university like you know, college is expensive so Oh, yeah, it is. I mean to blow through this much money on just to get players for games like video game for video game. absolutely ridiculous. And you know, here's my thing. If you want a gambling fix, do the figurine quest in Minish Cap. Like that is a gambling addiction because like the odds of good like which I think there's like 130 of them. As you get like you know more and more the chances of getting what you actually want are less than less like your odds are really against you. So if you want to fix a gambling addiction do the figurine quest in Zelda The Minish Cap and it will cure that addiction at least for a little while. But um, I don't know, man, I just saw this and it's kind of mind blowing action was you just kind of sigh you're just like, man, because this is getting ridiculous in a company. I know that they clarified it as not being gambling. But like very Yea, it's I mean, come on man

Red: 40:29

people's money for a chance at a good reward. And I think they get around to being gambling because like every Loot Crate gives you something at least Yeah, sorry. Like you get something at least but yeah, you want those rare unique items. You want the you know the top line that for FIFA, the best players, I think it was Battlefront. Like said Battlefront two was the one that got in so much trouble the Star Wars game for Yeah, and it's like you want the best perks and the best items the best heroes I mean, it's it's fucking gambling. And you know, if you want to do that, go to the damn casino just don't get addicted.

Hick: 41:01

Or not play blackjack me read I go to casino. I like to go a lot more. I don't make it very well. I'm only making like once or twice a year maybe. But I would like to make it more but you know, learn how to play blackjack. If you know how to play blackjack, you can win some good money. So good.

Red: 41:18

And unfortunately, we got to keep talking about some some bad issues.

Hick: 41:23

We're not gonna have time for that one. Because I was going to go on about that one for a little while. So we probably should say that for the next one. Well,

Red: 41:31

then let's go ahead and wrap it up. First of all, all the links for everything we're going to talk about here are down in the description. I can't talk. Good, good thing we're wrapping this up. Links are in the description for this podcast. If you really like us, you can support us on Patreon or PayPal. Patreon is kind of like a recurring thing. PayPal is more of a one time payment. Obviously if you can't support us financially, which it's hard times like 100% get that or maybe just don't like us that much. Either way, you know go ahead and review us rate us click that five stars even this will appreciate if you live like this. So go ahead and review us and rate us on these websites give us our five stars write a review. And also we have a few merchandise websites out there we have tgp z gaming.com and two guys playing zelda.com on two guys playing Zelda obviously we have Zelda related merchandise on tgp z gaming. We have all kinds of video game merchandise we may earn a little bit of a commission on that affiliate sales program. But uh how would you tell us a little bit there Hick about where we can find us on social media.

Hick: 42:34

Yeah, we're everywhere really. We got to Facebook groups gaming real and Zelda realm gaming realm is really going nuts I believe we were like at 6000 like two weeks ago we're already at like a 200 members so like that one has grown like crazy so if you're a Zelda fan definitely check out Zelda ram but if your video game go join gaming realm it's really poppin off we got two YouTube channels one for tg PC gaming really just put our podcast on there nothing too big are two guys playing Zelda YouTube channel that when we have over 10,000 subscribers so we got a lot of activity a lot of videos so if you're Zelda fan I highly recommend you check out two guys playing Zelda on YouTube. We got discord chain, a Discord server, where we talk all video game PlayStation, Microsoft, Nintendo and we also PC gaming we also talk some alcohol so sports which is really just soccer we talked a lot soccer. Oh, definitely go check that out. We have a blast over there. And then you could find this on all the social media Well, not all of them, but a lot of them you know Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, we also got some pay pages on Facebook, so definitely check those out. But anyways, that wraps up this episode and we will see you on the next episode. Keep on gaming